Hosting yard sales is a lot of work

KATHRYN YARBRO
Guest columnist

The signs are out all over town and up and down country roads. Some have been nailed to utility poles and some just stuck in dirt. Folks who have been storing junk are now cleaning closets and ready to get rid of some stuff.
And now it’s time to post your sign — yard sale — will be at this house. You are ready. This houseful of stuff has got to go.
Stuff. It surrounds us. In closets, cabinets, boxes, bags and on top of furniture where it collects even more dust.
At yard sales this stuff can be had cheap and we buy it. And we store it, or show it until we gather it up for another yard sale.
This stuff that we bought for very little money, now is worth even less at this year’s sale.
Still, getting rid of our discards can be a challenge. And most of us admit that this is a problem.
Take a look at the biggest closet that you have. Do you, or can you wear most of the clothes hanging there? Of course not. You have either gained or lost weight since you wore them, or you didn’t like that dress to begin with.
But it’s hard to pull it out for the sale. You think that you will lose weight this summer or may be it looks better than you thought it did.
Usually if something has a lot of memories or attachments, we are better off keeping it because it will not bring what we think it’s worth. So back inside and into the closet it goes until next year.
One way of getting rid of stuff is to give it a good look and ask yourself if keeping it another year is worth fifty cents. I’ve tossed a lot of stuff this way.
I do something else with clothes. Give them a good look, be honest will you wear it again, if not, put it in the garbage bag where you can’t see it and when the bag is full, drop it off at Goodwill or the Good Neighbor Shop.
Do not ever again look in the garbage bag. That ugly dress may begin to look better, but it hasn’t changed a bit.
And what do you do with all that leftover stuff?
This info is not for those who enjoy hosting front yard sales. It’s for those like me who had the hardest job ever collecting junk to display on the yard sale day.
When the day was over, I still had lots of stuff. I asked my customers to make an offer, and then I begged them just to take it.
The lesson I learned was worth more than the money I earned.
And that was to never post another yard sale sign in my yard.